Product Description

DSC-W300 features 13.6MP, 3x zoom lens and 2.7¿ Clear Photo LCD. Along with scratch resistant titanium body, W300 is powered with Smile Shutter technology to capture smile the moment they happen, Face Detection to capture faces clearly, Optical Image Stabilization to avoid blur, Intelligent Scene Recognition to avoid failure picture, and other great features like DRO Plus, EXTRA High ISO and EXTRA High Burst to take great shots. Also includes easy image management that includes calendar view and favorites and HD output to easy share and view images in amazing High Definition detail on your HDTV.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #6321 in Camera & Photo
• Color: Silver
• Brand: Sony
• Model: DSC-W300
• Number of items: 1
• Dimensions: 2.31" h x .68" w x 3.68" l, .55 pounds
• Display size: 2.7

Features

• 13.6-megapixel Super HAD CCD image sensor
• 3x optical zoom/6x digital zoom (35mm-105mm) lens
• BIONZ image processor delivers speed and precision
• Large, 2.7-inch Clear Photo LCD display
• Smile Shutter technology captures smiles

Manufacturer Description

This point and shoot has it all--and then some. The DSC-W300 includes a wide range of convenient features, including Smile Shutter Mode which captures smiles the moment they happen. The compact and scratch-resistant titanium-coated body features an astounding 13.6-megapixel resolution, 2.7-inch Clear Photo LCD display, Carl Zeiss 3x optical zoom lens, and Sony's Double Anti-Blur solution for crisp, clear images. In addition, it has Face Detection technology that optimizes flash, focus, exposure and color for up to eight faces, as well as Intelligent Scene Recognition that automatically detects five different types of scenes and takes a picture with the optimal camera settings.

Cyber-shot DSC-W300 Highlights

13.6-megapixel Super HAD CCD
More megapixels give you greater image definition so you can make big prints and tight crops without losing detail. The advanced Sony Super HAD (Hole Accumulated Diode) CCD design allows more light to pass to each pixel, increasing sensitivity and reducing noise.

Carl Zeiss 3x optical zoom lens
Professional Carl Zeiss lens with 3x optical zoom (35mm-105mm) brings distant subjects closer for great outdoor, sports, and travel photos.

2.7-inch Clear Photo LCD display
A large, bright 2.7-inch Clear Photo LCD display includes an anti-reflective coating that provides for excellent visibility to help you compose, view, and share photos with superb clarity and color reproduction, even in bright sunlight.

Anti-scratch Premium Titanium body
The titanium coating on the body is approximately five times harder than anodized aluminium-treated camera bodies, offers excellent protection from scratches while offering a premium look.

Face Detection
Face Detection technology recognizes up to 8 faces and automatically controls focus, exposure, white balance, and flash to help reveal faces in shadows, make skin tones look more natural, reduce red-eye, and eliminate harsh facial glare, so your photos bring out every expression on every face in every shot.

Smile Shutter
Smile Shutter technology captures smiles the moment they happen--without the need to press the shutter. The mode can be set to capture when your subject laughs, smiles or even grins, and like Face Detection is able to differentiate children and adults to set priority.

Sony Double Anti-Blur Solution
The combination of Super SteadyShot optical image stabilization and high ISO sensitivity helps compensate for shaky hands, minimizes blur, and allow flash-free shooting to preserve the mood.

Super SteadyShot optical image stabilization
Super SteadyShot optical image stabilization compensates for shaky hands and minimizes blur with a built-in gyro sensor that detects camera movement and sends correcting signals to a stabilization lens -- so there’s no need to crop in on your shot to reduce blur.

EXTRA High Sensitivity (ISO 3200) Mode
EXTRA High Sensitivity Mode (ISO 64006) helps reduce blur when shooting indoors or at twilight, even without flash, so you can capture great-looking images even in less-than-ideal lighting.

Intelligent Scene Recognition Mode
Intelligent Scene Recognition mode automatically detects 5 different types of scenes and selects the appropriate camera setting: Backlight, Backlight Portrait, Twilight, Twilight Portrait, and Twilight using a Tripod. Intelligent Scene Recognition has two different modes, advanced and auto. Advanced mode takes two shots, one with the standard automatic settings and the other with optimized settings. Auto mode takes a single shot, using the camera's intelligence to decide proper settings.

Dynamic Range Optimization Standard & Plus
Powered by the exclusive Sony BIONZ high-speed processing engine, Dynamic Range Optimization preserves image data in bright highlights and reveals more detail in shadows or backlit areas -- for great results even in difficult lighting conditions.

Variable Noise Reduction
Variable Noise Reduction allows greater control over image characteristics with High, Low and Standard settings that let you select the optimal setting depending on the scene and your personal tastes.

Convenient Photo Modes
To adjust quickly for specific shooting situations, you can choose from several convenient photo modes, including Auto, Program Auto, Manual Exposure, and Scene Selections such as Twilight, Twilight Portrait, Fireworks, Smile Shutter, Underwater, Landscape, Soft Snap, Snow, High Sensitivity, Extra High Sensitivity (only 3 megapixel image), Extra High Speed Burst (only 3 megapixel image) and Beach environments.

MPEG Movie VX Fine Mode
Capture VGA (640 x 480) audio/video clips at a high frame rate (up to 30 frames per second), with the length of your video limited only by the capacity of your media.

Automatic Macro Shooting
Standard Auto Focus now covers the macro focus range, eliminating the need to manually change focus modes for close-up photography. The Macro mode has not been eliminated, and enabling it accelerates Auto Focus when shooting at point-blank range.

9-Point Auto Focus
Because an off-center subject can make your shot more interesting, a 9-point auto focus measures auto-focus at 9 precision points instead of 5 -- giving you greater creative freedom to compose your image.

Smart Zoom Feature
The Sony Smart Zoom feature intelligently "crops into" the central portion of interest in your photo, helping avoid the image degradation of other digital zooms.

EXTRA High-Speed Burst Mode
EXTRA High-Speed Burst Mode allows high-speed shooting of up to 5 fps, an especially useful feature useful for capturing fast action photographs of sports scenes, kids’ activities, and animals.

Color Mode "Real"
Color Mode "Real" helps enable faithful color reproduction by minimizing in-camera image processing -- perfect for users who want to retouch their images after shooting.

Simple setup controls
A quick press of the Home button opens your user-friendly graphical interface -- and you can select functions by simply moving a cursor vertically or horizontally to the appropriate icon. Function names and the on-screen Function Guide display make it easier to learn camera setup operations.

Easy Shooting mode
A simplified camera environment especially attractive to beginners or digital camera users who want to keep things simple, Easy Shooting provides easy-to-read, on-screen instructions and limits the number of camera settings to help prevent misuse of the camera while still providing excellent results.

Function guide
This beginner-friendly function helps manage various functions and settings by displaying the description of chosen functions or settings on the LCD screen. The Function Guide can also be switched off.

Optical viewfinder
In addition to the LCD display, a built-in optical viewfinder lets you compose your photos in traditional rangefinder camera style, and also helps save battery power by turning off your LCD display.

15 MB Internal Memory
Even if you forget your flash memory card, you can get the shot because 15MB internal memory lets you capture a limited number of shots with in-camera convenience, then easily transfer your shots to a PC or optional Memory Stick Duo media, or Memory Stick PRO Duo .

Memory Stick Duo Media Convenience
A built-in slot accepts optional Memory Stick Duo media or Memory Stick PRO Duo media -- the compact, high-capacity storage media that make it easily to upload photos to your PC and are compatible with millions of devices worldwide.

Stamina Battery Power
Provides extended battery life10and shooting capacity when using a fully charged Lithium Ion battery-- enough to cover a long weekend or a whole vacation.

Easy Image Management
To help you find the right image among many, Date View and Favorites have been added to the standard Folder View. Date View displays a calendar view, while Favorites shows only user-selected images. Furthermore, you can filter photos by face types such as portrait, child, baby, and smile.

HDTV Compatibility
PhotoTV HD compatibility allows the camera to be connected to a PhotoTV HD-capable Sony BRAVIA HDTV via the optional HD output adaptor, for highly detailed, high-definition color images displayed in unprecedented realism and full HD quality. (All sold separately)

"PhotoTV HD"
PhotoTV HD compatibility allows the camera to be connected to a PhotoTV HD-capable Sony BRAVIA HDTV via the optional HD output adaptor, for highly detailed, high-definition color images displayed in unprecedented realism and full HD quality. (All sold separately.)

16:9 High-Resolution Mode
In addition to the standard 2-megapixel size, the convenient 16:9 aspect ratio shooting mode for HDTV display can now be shot in 10-megapixels, making it possible to obtain beautiful, high-definition prints with the same aspect ratio as HDTV.

Wide Zoom Display
To use the entire image area of the compatible HDTV screens, Wide Zoom automatically expands standard 4:3 and 3:2 images to 16:9.

PHOTOMUSIC
Expanding the HD Slide Show with Music feature, PHOTOMUSIC combines images with music to produce fun and entertaining slide shows. The five standard visual effects (Simple, Basic, Nostalgic, Active and Stylish) have been supplemented with Face1: Basic, Face2: Nostalgic and Face3: Stylish for a total of eight effects. Additionally, the number of music tracks stored in the camera memory has been doubled from four to eight, and music playback time has been extended from three to five minutes per track. More personalized slide shows are also possible by transferring music from a PC to the camera.

In-Camera Retouching
Add creative effects to photos after you shoot using any of 10 retouching functions, including: Trimming, Red-Eye correction, Soft Focus filter, Unsharp Mask, Cross filter, Partial Color filter, Fish-eye filter, Retro, Radial Blur and Happy Face. The Happy Face effect uses photo retouching to put a smile on faces, with smile levels adjustable from 1 to 5.

In-Camera Red-Eye Correction
Irritating "glowing eyes" can ruin even the most creative photos, but in-camera red eye reduction corrects your photos at the touch of a button to reduce lingering red-eye effect that other systems might miss.

Multi-Resizing Function
Resize your photos in-camera for virtually any purpose! Any size picture images can be resized to widescreen 16:9 and 2 MP resolution for display on an HDTV. Conversely, high resolution, widescreen 16:9 images or any size picture can be resized to 4:3 size with VGA (640x480) resolution -- perfect for sharing with friends and family via e-mail (internet connection required).

Picture Motion Browser Software
Supplied software makes it easier to upload, organize, and search photos on your PC. When shooting photos using your camera and an optional GPS unit, the software even provides a convenient map view function that lets you sort photos by location and display their origin on a world map.

BIONZ
BIONZ image processor delivers speed and precision

What's in the Box

• NP-BG1 rechargeable battery
• BC-CSG battery charger
• A/V and USB multi-connector cables
• Wrist strap
• Software CD-ROM
• Note: No Memory Stick PRO Duo Media adaptors are included.

Customer Reviews

Techno Geeks Review.
To start things off, please. Do not listen to the reviewers who said that the lens is poor. The lens on this camera, when compared to the lens on the Canon Sd790IS, Sd1100IS, and SD770IS, simply trumps them in every way - from middle to the extreme corners of the image. The canon, however, becomes very blury toward the edges giving a kind of "motion" feeling - not the sony.

Some say the canon shots look for colorful and eye-popping. To achieve shots like this, simply go into program mode, adjust the image sharpness to "+" and the color mode to "vivid" and the pictures are the same, if not better. The sony outdoes canon here by adding in a Dynamic range optimization in three steps: off, normal, or extra. With this, the camera can achieve a great range of colors in both the highlights and shadows of a shot.

Where as the sony doesn't have the "color-swap" wiz-bang functions, it does have more usefull settings like the Extra High Speed Burst setting, which can take 5 Frames per second! I tested this with my dog rolling around in the yard, and at each frame the camera had shot at such a high shutter speed my dog was stopped in time with out any blur. These pictures are only at 3MP, but are still very respectable for a camera that can fit in your shirt pocket. Also, the camera has program settings to bring out different colors in an image to achieve a certain look. Either Blue, Red, Green, or your can change the image to warmer or color depending on the shot you want to take. The green mode is very usefull for macro nature shots.

Also - 13.6 megapixels may be to big for some people (roughly 5-5.5 MB's per image), however when you turn the notch down to 8M, Bayer Interpolation goes away on the sensor, and the picture quality, in good light, starts to approach starter level SLR's, when the noise reduction is set right. Simple do a search on Flickr for "W300" to see what i mean.

One small gripe though - you cannot zoom while recording video. You CAN zoom before starting the video, but once the camera starts recording you cannot zoom in or out any further.

I also purchased Soft Carrying Case (Genuine Leather) LCS-TWB for DSC-T100,T75 T70,T25,T20, W90,W85,W80,W55,W35 black with this camera, and although the case doesn't even mention this camera in the compatibility list (I believe this camera came out AFTER this case) the case works wonderfully with the camera, and makes the already exuding quality of this product feel even more classy.

P.S. -> Nikon Is going to use the Sony developed sensor in this camera on their upcoming "P6000" flagship advanced P&S, adding to the credibility of this camera.

Spend more time learning about your cameras...
To those that are blaming the lack of sharpness on lens quality... I think the lens is phenomenal considering the size of the sensor.

I myself personally own a canon 700 IS, and this camera as well. I have spent ample time framing the same shot with both cameras and changing settings on both cameras.

In my opinion the sony IS capable of creating very sharp pictures superior in both color saturation and exposure then the canon series. It just isn't as obvious to do it as the canon as the canons don't offer near the amount of manual options that the sony offers. They pretty much lock the consumer into making good pictures and the consumers think they're the greatest.

That said, even a digital SLR can take very poor/soft pictures if you don't focus correctly. Spot, scene, average focusing can cause lots of problems with sharpness.

To make the sony perform as a Canon series camera would, place the camera into the auto mode, enable the iSCN option (not iSCN+). No muss no fuss sharp pictures just like Canons with in my opinion more vivid pictures and realistic colors. At least compared to my canon 700IS.

Either way, both cameras are great, both cameras have their shortcomings as they are compact cameras, but every digital camera is capable of taking great pictures. Just have to spend more time learning about it and trying to get the best performance out of them.

Fit For The Job.
I must start by saying that this camera (DSC-W300) is the first digital camera I have purchased. I have some experience with 35mm SLRs, but I wanted a versatile piece of kit that would enable me to upload pictures to the internet, print directly from the camera, and add images to my PlayStation 3 console.

The first thing I should note, and as indicated by the above comments, is that I think compact cameras are fundamentally utility devices. There are many people on the internet who criticise this model's unsuitability for longer-distance and wide-angle photography, and the lack of many video modes. On the first point, I would say this: compact cameras are designed for high quality close-up images (family and friends groups, primarily) and are not designed for vary-focal images (e.g., someone standing 300 yards in front of Mount Fuji and expecting both to be in focus perfectly). On the second point: movie modes on a still camera are a lovely bonus for a camera but are an add-on that should not be counted towards any final evaluation of the product. Sorry to sound snotty, but those are the basics.

So, does the W300 add up for the basics? Clearly, the Carl Zeiss lens is going to deliver on the bread and butter family snaps that is always going to be the brief for compacts. The 13.9 megapixel rating is useful, although the 8MP setting offers fantastic quality images that can be converted to 16:9 1080p for viewing on televisions. It is true that the .9 of a MP seems to have been lost in the implementation of actually taking photos, as the highest setting is the flat 13MP!

There are the usual ISO presets, automatic and night settings, as well as smile detection technology. Again, the brief of a compact camera has been observed well by Sony, weighing easy-of-use against range of use. This is again apparent in the neat Movie Mode: the 640 "fine" and "standard" image settings are perfectly acceptable for on-the-fly movies showing the drunken antics and practical jokes that are the stock-in-trade of the light-hearted situations that the W300 predominantly deals with. The MPEG-1 video format is also compatible with Windows Media Player and the PS3, among others.
The software that comes with the W300 enables the user to add their photos to a calendar on their PC, and even add location details for each picture via internet maps. The standard easy-to-use image manipulation features are there, again underlining the pick-up-and-play nature of compacts. Videos can be converted to WMV, too.

On the downside, the zoom is only x3, meaning for the occasions when it is needed it is not as versatile as, say, some of the Panasonic models. Secondly, the battery life is not quite what I expected (quoted in the manual at 150 minutes -with LCD panel switched on- for taking pictures alone), and the charge time for a full battery is a whopping 330 minutes. These are the only significant drawbacks to the camera that I have found thus far.

Build quality is excellent, as expected from a Japanese-made product. The LCD screen is more durable than I had expected, and its 2.7" size is more than large enough for viewing back and editing any images.

My first impressions of this product are very positive. As a compact camera the DSC-W300 is a very capable camera, with many of the intelligent design features expected from Sony. However, for those wanting a decent amount of zoom or other quasi-SLR features, it may be best to go for another model, or just take the plunge and go for an SLR instead.